Cage Wars ‘Validation’ took place in Belfast on Friday night and was a massive success by all accounts. Read on for JOE’s review of the event.
By Fergus Ryan
Cage Wars’ 13th instalment of top class MMA action took place in Belfast at “Validation” last Friday night.
Cage Wars VP of Productions, Jonny Burrows was delighted with the event, describing it as “a huge success and probably the biggest MMA show to be held in the UK and Ireland to date by a local promotion. I can honestly say the 3,500 paying spectators and all the fighters, local and international were well impressed with the production.”
Burrows wasn’t the only one impressed. With 111 fights for over 40 different promotions around the world, praise from MMA legend Jeremy Horn (pictured above) is high praise indeed.
When speaking to the promotion after his main event victory, over Belfast fighter Lee McKibbin, Horn said that Cage Wars Championship was one of the most professional organisations he had worked with. So impressed was Horn that he’s chomping at the bit to fight on the next Cage Wars card. He also promised to bring some fighters from his Elite Performance gym in Utah to sample a top quality MMA show beyond their own shores.
Rich Clementi returned to notch up his 2nd victory on a Cage Wars show with a 3rd round armbar and has asked to be included on future cards the promotion is planning across the UK and Europe in 2011.
Standout performances came from Mark Curry in his highly technical triangle from the top submission of Stephen Kingsbury. Chris Stringer bounced back with a really strong performance in his 2nd round finish of Zyad Abada.
Burrows was particularly glowing in his review of newly crowned Cage Wars lightweight Champion Ali Maclean in a one night tournament. “Ali showed lots of heart, determination and grit to beat 2 really tough opponents” said Burrows. He believes the single night tournament format worked well and plans to award belts in other weight classes using this method with middleweights up next.
For those not fortunate enough to make it to Belfast you can catch a replay of “Validation” on Sky Sports 3 on December 21st, further evidence that MMA is going mainstream. Sky Sports were enthusiastic about dealing with an organisation that had the finished product, with “Validation” being the first of four shows to be carried by Sky Sports.
Burrows’ mantra is to produce the highest quality event possible believing this is the key to gaining mainstream media interest. It has certainly been working for Cage Wars so far.
Cage Wars ‘Validation’ will be shown on Sky Sports 3 on Tuesday 22 December at 11pm.
Full results from the card
•Mal McFall (Belfast) defeated Paul McCourt (Belfast) via unanimous decision.
•Mark Curry (Belfast) defeated Stephen Kingsbury via first-round submission (mounted triangle choke / Kimura armlock)
•Damian Mc Fall (Lisburn) defeated Gary Carlin (Londonderry) via split decision.
•Ryan Boyd (Cullybackey) defeated Krystian Mikolajek (Poland) via unanimous decision.
•Ali Maclean (Belfast) defeated Tommy Maguire (Wisbech) via unanimous decision in the first semi-final of the UK Lightweight championship tournament.
•Bobby McVitie (Glasgow) defeated Nomaan Khalid (Slough) via first round submission (triangle choke)
•Chris McDonald (Bangor) defeated Victor Kontritas (Lithuania) via first round KO
•Paul Reed (Bristol) defeated Simon Neale (Scarborough) via first round submission
